Five times Tony hugs Pepper
by SilverHeart09
Summary: ... and one time she hugs him.
1. The First Time

5 Times Tony hugs Pepper… and one time she hugged him.

**The first time.**

It's five months since the start of her employment as Mr Stark's executive assistant at Stark Industries, and Pepper has just about had enough.

The man. is. insufferable.

Although now that she thinks about it, 'insufferable' really isn't the right word. Overbearing, stubborn, obnoxious, arrogant, condescending, she could go on. As an example of how ridiculously all of the above he is, they're currently sat in a meeting with the Board of Directors no less, and he's leaning back on his chair, feet on the desk, tapping away on his phone and so obviously not paying attention. Stane flashes an apologetic look at her and she hides a sigh and looks down at her perfectly written notes that he will, no doubt, completely ignore.

After the meeting, she goes to the restroom to splash some water on her face and do her best to arrange her hair slightly more neatly. Sitting in a room full of stuffy old men and women does occasionally result in her literally pulling her hair out.

Outside, Tony Stark is waiting for her, leaning back against the wall with that infuriating smirk of his on his face that he _thinks _gets him all the ladies (and maybe if she was that kind of girl it would have worked by now), but as far as she's concerned, makes him look stupid. He's a smart man, a genius even, so much more than just a pretty face.

Plus, the man is 28 years old for crying out loud, he could at least act like it.

'Hey, Potts,' he calls out to her in that offhand way, as though he's surprised to see her in the washroom and was waiting for someone else. 'Fancy a drink later?'

'No, thank you, Mr Stark,' Pepper tells him. 'I have plans this evening.'

'I don't like it when you have plans.'

'I don't like it when you don't pay attention in important meetings, but somehow I think that isn't going to stop,' she snarks back at him, surprised at herself for her boldness, but this man really knows how to push her buttons, not in the good way either.

'Touché, Miss Potts,' her employer tells her, and saunters off down the corridor, no doubt to harass the new blond bombshell in the typing pool.

She doesn't have plans that evening either, other than sitting in front of the TV with her overweight ginger cat watching _Whose Line _but there you go. A date with her cat certainly wouldn't be as embarrassing or awkward as a date with her boss. She could just picture how that would go. Flirting for the entire evening then trying to kiss her then maybe trying to get her into bed with him.  
Ew, no.

Not that she thinks her boss is unattractive, in fact she wishes he didn't have those large smouldering (or puppy dog, depending on what mood he was in) brown eyes, or those full utterly kissable lips, those strong toned arms, or that rich thick dark head of hair. _Yep, _Pepper thinks to herself, feeling slightly annoyed. _This job would be much easier if my boss wasn't so easy on the eye._

For her and for him, more than likely.

The evening brings as much joy as she anticipated. A glass of wine, the leftover slice of lasagne, and a large fat cat using her as a pillow. Not that she minds particularly, it's nice to have someone who wants to cuddle with her. That then proves to be a dangerous line of thought, as she pictures what cuddling with her boss would be like and wakes up on the sofa with his name on her lips and her hand between her legs.

She has an extremely cold shower the next morning.

Tony gives her a barely discernible grunt when she delivers his coffee that morning, and shuts himself away in his workshop all day, forgetting she's even there. Pepper doesn't complain however, and uses the calm atmosphere to set up her laptop and folder full of work at the living room table and dedicates herself to answering emails, scheduling appointments, forwarding calls, like the good little PA she is.

And she pictures the gorgeous Louboutins she can buy with that month's pay check. Black leather, red soles. Yum.

Her phone rings around eight thirty that evening and jars her out of her work, where she stares dumbfounded at the clock and wonders where the time went. Caller ID identifies the person on the phone as her mother, and Pepper settles back comfortably against the sofa to answer the call.

'Evening, mom,' she says cheerfully, stretching out her suddenly aching legs.

Her mother is quiet on the other end of the phone, and Pepper thinks she can hear sniffles.

'Mom? Is everything okay?' she asks cautiously.

'It's your grandmother, dear,' her mother says, and her voice is full of sadness.

'Grandma Joyce?' Pepper asks, frowning. Last she knew her grandma was in Portugal with a toyboy called Ricardo.

'No, sweetheart. My mother, Grandma Elsie,' her mother says, her voice on the verge of tears.

'What's happened?' Pepper asks, though by the tone of her mother's voice, she can guess.

'She had a massive stroke,' her mother sobs down the phone. 'She's gone, Ginny.'

Pepper stares into space for a few minutes (or at least it seems like a few minutes), clutching the plastic case of her phone tightly in her hand.

'Oh,' she says, because there isn't much else she can think of to say. It doesn't seem possible to her. Grandma Elsie was larger than life, always ready with a bag of sweets and a cheerful smile, or a suggestion of where exactly she could stick her boss's ego. A stroke being her downfall didn't seem right, didn't seem possible, the woman had survived two World Wars for crying out loud.

'Can you come home?' her mother asks, making her jump.

Pepper stares at the mountains of emails building up in her inbox, the unanswered messages needing her attention. She can get JARVIS to do them, she decides. Mr Stark did try to explain to her exactly what his AI was capable of, but she still had no clue. 'Trial and error,' he'd announced when she'd first visited the mansion, shrugging when she continued to give him a blank look. 'You'll figure it out, you're smart enough.' Then he'd given her a lopsided grin and a tour of the house.

'Of course,' she says, still not sure what her emotions are doing. 'I'll come home first thing tomorrow.' It's sensible of course. She needs time to pack and tell her boss, she needs to find someone to babysit her cat, she needs… she needs…

She needs a hug.

Her mother says her tearful goodbyes and leaves her daughter sitting on the couch; staring at the wall and not realising her mother has hung up until the dialling tone begins to drill through her subconscious.

Her grandmother is dead.

Pepper feels a ball of emotion welling up inside her, she wants to cry, scream, yell about how unfair life is, but she can't even get the energy to get off the couch. She wants someone to hold her and love her and tell her everything will be okay. Instead she has an AI, two incompetent robots and a boss who thinks the only things a woman is good for is sex and organising his life.

Pepper gets off the couch eventually, she's never been one for sitting around doing nothing during a crisis, and she has things to do. Quick instructions to JARVIS organise her inbox and her schedule for the next couple of days, and she's able to make her way down the steps and into the workshop, tapping her code silently in at the door and stepping into the room.

She can make out the shape of her boss by the Hot Rod that should have been finished years ago, and now JARVIS has turned down his obnoxiously loud music (Black Sabbath? AC/DC?) she's able to make herself heard.

'Mr Stark?' she calls out.

'What have I told you about turning my music down, Potts?' her boss replies, but his tone is quite light-hearted and there's no real venom in it.

'I'm sorry, sir, I need to talk to you about something,' she says, making her way across the floor, her heels clacking on the stone.

'What's that?' Tony asks, perching on the tire and wiping his filthy oil covered hands across his filthy oil covered jeans, not really cleaning them, more spreading the dirt around.

'I need to take a few days off, immediately,' she says apologetically. 'Maybe even a week.'

Stark frowns at her. 'That's not like you,' he says, and Pepper is impressed that he's got such an accurate impression of her from five months employment where he seems to have spent every waking second trying to seduce her into bed.

'Is everything okay?' he asks, and Pepper realises that she has to actually say the words out loud for them to be true, so she swallows the big ball of sadness in her throat and opens her mouth to explain the need for her sudden absence.

And promptly bursts into noisy, heart-wrenching sobs.

'Pepper,' Tony says, standing up and awkwardly holding his hands out, sounding genuinely distressed to see his normally competent, calm and professional PA in tears in front of him. 'Don't cry, I'm a bloke I don't know how to cope.'

The admittance of his incompetence doesn't help, and if anything it only makes Pepper cry harder, hiding her face behind her hands as she tries (and fails completely) to staunch the flow of tears.

Then strong arms are wrapped around her and she's pressed against a soft _warm _body and she latches on to the front of her boss's t-shirt and howls into the fabric. Embarrassment is pushed to the far recesses of her mind because he's _here _and _warm _and _comforting _and actually _hugging her._

Tony leads her like a small child over to the couch by the kitchenette, pulls her into his embrace and holds her tightly and lets her sob out the tears of her childhood all over him. He doesn't say anything, just holds onto her and lets her cry, occasionally stroking her hair or saying her name softly.

Eventually she stops crying and starts hiccupping awkwardly instead and she's able to look up at him with bleary red eyes and the worry in his face nearly sets her off again.

'Pep,' he says softly. 'What's happened? Do you need me to beat someone up for you?'

That produces a peculiar sounding hiccup-laugh as she pictures her boss fighting St Peter at the Pearly Gates while her Grandma chuckles and takes bets from the other angels.

Tony looks indignant but he smiles gently at her all the same and she takes a few deep breaths and manages to get those four seemingly small but suddenly huge words out.

'My grandma is… dead.'

'I'm so sorry to hear that,' Tony says, stroking her hair, and his words and face are full of genuine sadness. 'Life sucks sometimes.'

Pepper nods her agreement and sniffs loudly, then manages to pull herself together a little. Something taps at her shoulder and Dum-E beeps and whirs confusingly at her, a screwdriver in its claw.

Tony shakes his head in despair and gives his oldest robot a look. 'I don't think screwdrivers will work on our lovely Miss Potts, maybe put the kettle on.'

Pepper takes the screwdriver anyway as the big bot rolls off to the kitchenette. 'When I'm upset or annoyed about something I like taking things apart and rebuilding them,' Tony explains, nodding at the screwdriver. 'Something Dum-E over here has picked up on.'

Pepper clutches the small screwdriver tightly and can't help but laugh when a loud crash indicates that Dum-E has knocked the kettle onto the floor and is whirring at it in annoyance.

'Don't go anywhere,' Tony tells her, and reluctantly looses his hold on her and stands up to berate the bot, who hangs his claw down low in shame.

Pepper looks at the screwdriver and can't help but wonder if maybe the reason Tony had held her so tightly, is because no-one had done the same for him when he lost his parents, that then makes her wonder what he'd done when he'd learnt his parents were dead, and a quick glance at Dum-E and the concerned way he was still beeping at her gave her the answer.

'She'll be okay,' she heard Tony say quietly as he picked the kettle off the floor and plugged it back in. 'Our Pepper is made of stern stuff.'

When had she become 'their' Pepper?

U stuck its claw in her face and awkwardly patted her hair, trying to imitate its master and, even though the cloud of sadness still lay heavily around her, Pepper couldn't help but smile. She'd lost one member of her family that night, but she was pretty sure she'd gained another.

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_Sorry for the angst but kind of happy ending, right? :( Please review! And to everyone that does thank you so very much. Next chapter coming soon._


	2. The Second Time

_Superfast update! Thank you to everyone that reviewed :) Keep 'em coming! Love you all :)_

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**The Second Time**

'_Hey, Potts, what are you wearing?'_

Pepper rolls her eyes and debates hanging up the phone, that's the problem with Tony though (well, one of the many problems with Tony), he doesn't take defeat lightly and will keep calling non-stop until she answers his question.

'What are _you _wearing?' Pepper says, turning the question back around. She's known him for five years, she can do that now.

Tony chuckles on the other end of the phone. _'Kinky, Potts. I am looking devilishly handsome in Dolce and Gabbana and don't know what tie to wear. Hence the previous question.'_

'You want to know what colour dress I'm wearing so we can _match?' _Pepper half says-half shrieks down the phone.

'_Problem?'_

'We are not a couple, Mr Stark, the only reason I am going to this at all is because lots of businessmen will want to arrange meetings with you which you will not have the interest to do.'

There's a pause on the other end of the phone, and then: _'So you're not going to tell me what you're wearing?'_

Pepper can feel a headache coming on and she hasn't even left the house yet.

'Wear the blue tie, goodbye Mr Stark,' she says, and hangs up without bothering to specify _which _blue tie he should wear, not that it matters, the man looks good in anything.

Pepper straightens down the front of her (green, definitely not blue) full lenth gown and scrutinises herself in the mirror, wishing for the millionth time that night that she didn't have to go to this stuffy benefit full of boring businessmen and snooty female secretaries.

Her phone buzzes and Pepper glances down to see a text from Happy on the screen informing her that he's waiting outside for her. She gives herself one final one-over in the mirror, picks up her clutch purse, pats her cat's head goodbye, and exits the house.

Happy's parked the limo bang opposite her drive, and Tony is leaning against it, one eyebrow raised, blue tie neatly in place, hair perfectly messed up.

'That,' he says, pointing at her. 'Is not a blue dress.'

'Well done, Mr Stark,' she tells him. 'I can see why they call you a genius.'

That earns her an eye roll, but in credit to him he does hold the door open for her (probably so he can ogle her ass as she gets in) and climbs in after her.

'Seriously though, Potts, you look lovely,' he tells her, and Pepper has to fight to hide the blush that creeps up to her cheeks. Luckily the limo isn't that light and he probably didn't notice.

'Thank you, Mr Stark,' she tells him, as he pours himself a glass of scotch from the mini bar. 'I'm so proud that after all these years you've finally managed to dress yourself.'

Tony chuckles.

They reach the hotel a few minutes later and already Pepper can see and hear the paparazzi waiting on the steps with their cameras, barely being contained by the security. Tony opens the door and holds his hand out for her.

'Come on, Potts. Live or die let's get this over with.'

Pepper takes a deep breath and exhales. Tony surprises her by actually picking up on her anxiety and smiles softly at her.

'Not used to being the centre of attention?'

'I've never been the centre of attention,' Pepper answers back.

Tony looks confused. 'I thought you were a model?'

'Tony!' Pepper exclaims, she did not remember putting that on her resume.

He gives her a lopsided grin. 'Hey, no judging, I couldn't live without you, Pepper,' he says, and takes her hand in his. 'You go up first, I'll pretend to talk to Happy about something, pretend you're on the runaway or something and tune them out. Do smile though, you have a pretty smile.'

Pepper takes another deep breath and allows herself to be helped out of the car. Tony gives her hand one last reassuring squeeze then bangs on the driver's window.

'Hey, Hogan! Open up you grumpy old git.'

Pepper ignores the paparazzi flashing their cameras and calling her name, and instead focuses on the door, like she used to when she was modelling. Look at the clock, ignore the people, look at the clock, keep your face expressionless and put one foot in front of the other.

She did manage a small smile though.

Once inside the ballroom Pepper relaxed. No-one was looking at her, no-one was interesting in her and why should they be? She was only a PA after all.

'Pepper!'

Rhodey had spotted her and was waving at her, making his way towards her, his air force uniform sticking out like a sore thumb in the crowd of greys and browns.

'You have no idea how glad I am to see you, Pep,' he tells her, leading her by the waist over to the bar. 'Those generals were boring me to death.'

It makes Pepper smile to hear Rhodey talk about his bosses in such a degenerative way when he tells Tony off for little things like microwaving popcorn for lunch, but then he's always opened up to her.

Tony joins them a few seconds later, trapping Pepper in the middle of the two men and ordering another scotch.

'Hey buddy, go easy on those,' Rhodey warns, nodding at his glass. 'We both know you're a bit of a lightweight.'

'I am not!' Tony protests indignantly.

'Yeah yeah whatever you say,' Rhodey says with a knowing wink at Pepper.

A few hours later it's one in the morning and Tony is as drunk as a skunk (Pepper really doesn't know where that phrase comes from, it just seems so accurate).

'Hey Pottsssss,' he slurs drunkenly at her. 'Wannaaaa dancccee?'

'No thank you, Mr Stark,' Pepper replies. 'In fact I think we should probably be getting back now, it's quite late.'

'Noooo,' Tony says, pouting at her. 'You need more whiskeys.'

'I don't drink whiskey,' Pepper points out, and looks pointedly at Rhodey who is stood at the other side of the room and nods at her in acknowledgement.

'Come on, Tony,' he says, clapping his friend on the back and making him stumble and nearly crash into the bar. 'I think it's time to get back.'

'Party pooper,' Tony mumbles, but doesn't complain and allows himself to be led back to the waiting limo.

Once inside, he passes out almost immediately and leans back on the leather upholstery, drooling all over the head rest. Rhodey and Happy both agree that they will take him back to the house and Pepper can go straight home. She doesn't complain, babysitting Tony Stark when he's drunk isn't worth the extravagant pay check she receives at the end of each month.

Happy pulls up outside her house and Tony jars awake when he feels the car stop.

'Is this your house?' he says, confused and staring at Pepper's condo.

'Yes, you were here earlier,' Pepper points out, opening the car door.

'No wait! Potts!' Tony says, grabbing her hand as she's about to step out of the limo.

'What?' Pepper says irritated.

Tony latches onto her, wrapping his arms around her middle. He stinks of alcohol but his embrace is warm and his body is soft.

'Thank you,' he mumbles into her neck.

'For what?' Pepper asks, patting his head awkwardly.

'Everything,' Tony says, and Pepper hopes she can escape before he turns on the waterworks. He can be a bit of an emotional drunk sometimes.

'I love you,' he says, pulling back and looking at her, but his eyes are dull and not really focused on her face.

Pepper sighs affectionately at him and steps out of the car. 'Goodnight, Mr Stark,' she says.

Rhodey and Happy both say their goodbyes and by the time Pepper gets inside the house she can see that Tony has fallen asleep again.

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_Aww sleepy drunk!Tony :) Please review and thank you muchly to all the awesome people that did ^_^_


	3. The Third Time

_Boom another update! Even though I should reaaaallllyyyy be working on my uni work. Ho-hum. I like this chapter :) And before anyone asks, snuggling totally counts as hugging :)_

_Please review!_

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**The Third Time**

Her alarm goes off at some ridiculously early time in the morning and Pepper yawns, stretches, and sits up. Drawn by the noise, Rocky (her overweight cat) jumps on her bed and meows pitifully at her.

'It's 6am,' Pepper tells him. 'You can't possibly be hungry this early.'

He meows at her and Pepper sighs and manages to get out of bed, fatigue hitting her like a wave the second she stands up. 6am is a lie-in for her, usually she's up by 5am and ready to go by half 5, but today is a Friday and she was up late finishing budget reports.

Once the cat is fed, Pepper pours herself an espresso and drinks it while watching the news. She used to hate espressos, but since she started working for Tony (whose blood volume is at least 70% coffee) she'd developed a taste for them and relished the kick they gave her at ridiculously early times in the morning, such as today.

Pepper stretches and starts her morning routine, washing her hair in the shower, blow-drying it neatly and fixing it in her usual bun, selecting a pretty grey skirt-suit with a blue blouse, applying a light coating of makeup (she hates her freckles, Tony said she looked cute with them, which makes her hate them even more) and selecting her 'Thank Fuck It's Friday!' shoes, the black ones with blue insoles and tasteful décor on the front.

She picks up her handbag, checking her keys and phone are inside, tucks the budget reports and her laptop in neatly, and exits the house. By this point, it's quarter to seven. The working day doesn't officially start till nine, but there are always employees who like to get in early to finish work and make a good impression on their managers. In Pepper's case, she likes to get to her boss's house early and drag his ass out of bed (if he isn't already up) to get him showered, dressed, full off coffee, and ready for the important budget meeting at ten.

On arrival at the house, she finds said boss sprawled on his front across the sofa, x-box controller still in one hand, cuddling a cushion with the other, dead to the world and looking slightly adorable. From eight years of experience (has it really been that long? Has it really been that short?) Pepper is well aware that a nuclear bomb could go off and when he was this asleep, he wouldn't notice.

Pepper makes her boss a cup of espresso and waves it under his nose, the coffee tendrils wafting up into his nose. He scrunches his nose (not cutely, it definitely wasn't cute, stop it Pepper) buries his head a little further into the cushion, and opens one eye lazily to investigate. He finds his lovely red-headed assistant smiling sweetly at him and he immediately knows she's going to make him go to a meeting, he knows that look. He also knows that she knows that he thinks she looks lovely in blue, that and the coffee…

'It's a budget meeting isn't it?' he mumbles into the fabric.

Pepper chuckles (he thinks it's a lovely sound) and nods. 'Turn up and pay attention, then you have an R&D meeting this afternoon.'

That cheers him up a little, R&D meetings are always a laugh and usually result in them trying to make a new chemical compound that will explode fantastically, the first time this happened it resulted in a line of fireworks that came out a few days before the 4th of July and sold out in minutes.

Tony manages to pull himself into a sitting position and yawns noisily, taking the espresso from his assistant's dainty hands (wow, her hands really are petite) and running the espresso-free hand through his hair, no doubt messing it up more than it already was. He watches Pepper as she sits beside him and pulls out her BlackBerry, checking her emails no doubt. He doesn't like people handing him things, never has, but when it's Pepper doing it somehow it's a little easier.

By 9am he's showered, dressed, looking like a calm, competent, professional CEO and whining to Pepper about why she won't let him take the bike to the office.

'If you must drive yourself, at least take the Audi,' she tells him firmly, picking up the R8's keys and dangling them in front of his face.

'Who's the boss?' Tony asks, hands folded across his chest, but the small grin on his face lets her know she's won and he's just winding her up. 'Are you coming with me?'

Pepper eyes the car cautiously. The car itself runs like a dream, she knows because he let her drive it up and down the PCH a couple of times when he forgot her birthday that year (he forgot her birthday the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, but this year she decided to make him suffer).

'Fine,' she agrees after a while. It would be silly to take both cars to the office when the company is trying to promote clean energy and lower CO2 emissions: the press would not be impressed with that, and the employees of Stark Industries are used to their CEO and his PA arriving together so it wouldn't cause a scandal, in fact usually she gets nods and silent applauses that she managed to get him to the office at all.

Pepper eyes her little car parked outside his house sadly as Tony floors it and zips down the driveway and onto the highway. The sun is shining and the traffic isn't too bad for a Friday morning, they reach the office in no time and Pepper is actually in a good mood after being renegaded with tales of old MIT exploits when Rhodey was his roommate. Apparently he snores like 'an elephant driving a lorry with a rocket engine.'

The budget meeting is slow and dull, but Tony does pay attention and asks relevant questions, and impresses everyone with some quick math when a question comes up about overall projections for the next season. He is a genius; people seem to forget that, probably because he has the mental maturity of a five year old. He's wearing odd socks as well, Pepper notices: one blue sock and one Loony Toons sock. It's an odd combination and Pepper is actually quite impressed that he can pull it off at all with his brown pinstriped suit as well.

'Nice job guys,' Tony says, shaking his employees' hands as they exit the room. He turns to Pepper, eyebrow raised when it's just them left and gives her an inquisitive glance.

'Nicely done,' Pepper tells him, smiling. 'Now if only you would act like that in all your meetings.'

'I've got the Friday feeling,' Tony says, arms outstretched and head turned towards the window with the brightly coloured sun pouring through. 'You do too.'

'I do?' Pepper asks, gathering everyone's notes up and putting them in a neat pile ready for her to look at later.

'You're wearing blue,' Tony points out, flashing her a knees-trembling grin. 'You wear blue when you're happy.'

Pepper is impressed that he noticed and nods in acknowledgment. 'So you do pick up on some things? I'm impressed, Mr Stark.'

'I'm a man of many talents,' he says, shrugging modestly and holding the door open for her.

'So I've heard,' she murmurs quietly, and hurries quickly into her office, but not before catching Tony's Cheshire-Cat like grin in the reflection of the glass.

It's a good day. The budget is perfect, the employees are happy, the sun is shining, and the laughter coming from the meeting room next to her office indicates that the R&D guys are obviously doing a good job. Pepper crosses to her printer and lifts its lid, placing a sheet of paper on the glass to copy. Annoyingly, nothing happens and Pepper sighs and writes a memo to remind her to call the IT guys again.

She retrieves the paper and steps out into the hallway, deciding to use the copier downstairs, she'd get to see her old accountant team that way and hear all the gossip. Maybe Marianne has had her baby.

About four stairs down, a door somewhere is blown shut due to wind let in by an open window and Pepper starts.

And trips, the heel of her right favourite Friday shoe snapping clean away.

It's her own fault, she insists on wearing ridiculously high heels to work. But they're so comfortable and makes her feel empowered (not that she needs to; everyone knows she has Tony Stark's balls in a vice).

It's a fall so impressive she wishes someone was filming it as she flies down the stairs head over heels, landing with a thump on the floor below. It isn't a steep set of stairs and it's only a small staircase, but something cracks and pain shoots up her leg in agonising waves. Pepper can do nothing but sit there and grit her teeth, panting heavily and fighting the wave of nausea crawling its way up her throat.

It's late in the day and no-one's around to see her fall so she's sprawled at the bottom of the stairs on her own, unable to move and fighting back the urge to cry. She isn't a crier, she isn't a run and hide person when faced with a difficult situation. She's a heads on gets-shit-done kind of person and everyone knows it. And she has just fallen down the stairs and, judging by the pain, broken her ankle so she's allowed to cry for crying out loud.

A door upstairs opens and Pepper hears a panicky voice at the top of the staircase. She doesn't catch who it is until that person is right in front of her and tiling her chin upwards to look at them.

'Pepper, hey, Pep look at me.'

Pepper manages to fight through the wall of pain to look at her boss's face, whose eyes looked worried but manages to ease her fears a little when he says: 'why did you fall down the stairs? That was daft.'

Pepper laughs a little but cuts off in a grimace when the pain comes back stronger. Tony squeezes her arm reassuringly and a couple of the R&D guys come down as well to help.

'Catching a nap where you can get it?' Tom, the senior developer, says; a glint in his eye despite the worry in his voice.

'You're working her too hard, boss,' someone says from the top of the stairs.

Tony chuckles and _oh so gently _eases her heels off her feet, obviously conscious of her broken ankle.

'Come on Pep let's get you up,' he says, wrapping an arm around her waist. 'You don't look comfortable or dignified sprawled on the floor like that.'

Tom smiles at her and wraps his arm around her waist as well, so she's being supported by the two men, one on either side. Slowly and carefully, they get her to her feet and one of the other guys grabs a chair for her to sit on.

'I've called an ambulance, boss,' someone says and Pepper winches.

'You're not made of titanium, Miss Potts,' Tom says, pulling a face at her. 'You're not invincible and we're not letting you walk to the door.'

Matthew, another R&D guy, picks up her broken shoe and examines it. 'Do they make shoes with metal heels?' he asks.

His team gives him strange looks.

'I'm not really a high-heel sort of guy,' Tom says. 'I always found them difficult to walk in.'

Bill and Dave nod their agreement.

'Maybe that should be our new pitch?' Kevin says. 'Shoes for invincible businesswoman with titanium heels.'

'Gold-titanium is stronger,' Bill points out.

'Perfect, gold-titanium heels. Miss Potts can model them; they'll be sold out in seconds. The advert can be "Gold-Titanium! Guaranteed to not break when you fall down the stairs!"'

Pepper can't help but laugh, because she knows they're only saying it to cheer her up and make her feel a little less embarrassed. The guys are smiling warmly at her and Tony has his hand on her shoulder and it's still sunny outside and there is a tiny bit of her good mood left.

'That's better,' Dave says approvingly. 'Look on the bright side, Miss Potts. Mr Stark has to give you some time off now.'

Tony clasps his chest and fakes a heart attack at the very notion of being without Pepper and they all laugh. Then someone starts whistling 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' and that sets them all off and for a second Pepper is able to forget about her bruises and her broken ankle. Then the pain comes searing back and she grits her teeth and Tony squeezes her shoulder reassuringly.

Much later that evening, she's sat on Tony's sofa with her ankle in a cast propped up on a footstool, full of drugs and leaning on Tony as they watch _Monsters Inc. _Pepper has never seen it and Tony is not impressed.

It's definitely the drugs, she tells herself, as Tony pulls her closer against him and wraps his arm tightly around her shoulders, letting her use his chest as a pillow. They gave her morphine at the hospital and she'd spent the car ride back to the mansion giggling hysterically, then sobbing, and then giggling again. She did manage to get Tony to pick up her cat on the way back though. They'd (well, Tony) decided that she should stay with him so he could keep an eye on her, as her relatives were spread out across the states and her neighbours were mostly elderly and wouldn't be able to keep popping in to check she's okay. Plus the house is large and she wouldn't keep walking into everything with her crutches like she would at her own home. Rocky (who was most indignant at being picked up by a strange man and deposited into a car) is sat on her leg swishing his tail back and forth and glaring at Tony.

Pepper yawns sleepily and snuggles into Tony's side, eyes drifting close. She dozes through the rest of the film and hears Tony quietly tell JARVIS to turn the lights off downstairs. Then she's being picked up gently and cradled carefully in his arms as he carries her upstairs, minding her cast on the narrow staircase. He deposits her gently down on the soft mattress in the upstairs guest room and pushes her hair away from her face. Rocky jumps onto the bed and curls up against her side as he tucks her in, pulling the sheets over her. She's dressed in his old MIT sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants and doesn't need to worry about getting changed. Thank god. After the embarrassment of the day she doesn't think she could bear it if Tony saw her naked as well.

'Night, Pepper,' Tony says softly. Pepper continues feigning sleep and smiles when she feels his lips press gently against her forehead. Then she hears his footsteps as he exits the room and the door closing quietly behind him. Rocky purrs and licks her hand, always able to tell when his mistress isn't really asleep and Pepper opens her eyes and looks at the closed door, his kiss burning her skin, heart full of longing.

It's definitely the drugs.

(Months later, when she's able to walk again but confined to flats, she finds a shoe-box in her office that contains her broken favourite Friday shoes, repainted a deep blue with firm black coloured gold-titanium heels.)

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_Please review! And to all you wonderful people that have YOU ALL GET COOKIES._


	4. The Fourth Time

_Sorry this took so long! This was actually going to be the fifth time, as this chapter was rewritten. The original fourth time had a completely different story line and was set pre-Iron Man, and somehow evolved into smut while I was writing it despite the fact that I have never written porn IN MY LIFE... (hey, don't look at me, the story was writing itself it just happened). Which means for the next chapter please let me know if you want Tony and Pepper to get it on, it will be set post Iron Man 2, before Avengers._

_This chapter is full of fluff and feels, no bad behaviour of any kind :)_

_(I'd like to take this opportunity to thank thatpersonwhoisthatperson for her words of wisdom when the original chapter turned into smut: 'IT'S OKAY IT HAPPENS')_

_Please review!_

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**The Fourth Time**

Pepper still can't really believe he's back. She still remembers the phone call from Rhodey while she's at the office nursing a hangover (the result of going out for her birthday the night before), the heart-breaking feeling in her chest and the sudden feeling that she'd lost everything. Tony, _her _Tony, gone. It didn't seem possible, he was larger than life, charismatic, handsome, eccentric, and when he walked into a room everyone knew about it. She'd walked into his house that night, laid flat on his bed and allowed the part of herself that's completely head-over-heels in love with her boss to come out and howl into his sheets. She spends the next three months walking around like a ghost of her former self, listening quietly to Stane put forward a vote to elect himself as CEO of the company (which falls spectacularly through the floor, Tony may be awful at actually _running _his company, but the board is very fond of their strange CEO), and listening to Rhodey petition the air force to allow him to go out and try and find his best friend. She keeps his house tidy, keeps his clothes neatly folded and makes sure there's always enough food in the kitchen. She even sits with Dum-E and U in the workshop sometimes as they whistle and beep their loss in the strange way they communicate.

Then comes the call at four in the morning. Pepper doesn't even look at the caller ID, at that point she's past caring who it is, her resignation is typed neatly on her laptop, ready to be printed and posted to human resources and she's already looked at a couple of administrative positions for other companies (who all want the famous Pepper Potts badly) and even looked at a position to curate art at an art gallery in Chicago (she doesn't think she could stay in California, it wouldn't feel right without Tony). Pepper grabs the phone, presses accept, and holds it against her ear.

'Hello?' she says sleepily into the receiver.

'_Pepper,'_ says a voice on the other end, and his voice sounds like its just received its first breath of air.

'Tony?' she says, a tightness developing in her chest like she can barely believe it, like someone is playing a cruel prank on her.

'_The one and only.'_ His voice sounds tired, and Pepper immediately goes into mother hen mode and wonders if he's been getting enough sleep, if he's been eating enough, before she realises that chances of either of those things happening are pretty slim.

'Oh my god,' she gasps, and can feel tears threatening at the corner of her lashes.

'_Hey, you better not be crying over me, Potts,'_ he tells her, and Pepper can't help but smile.

'Like you're worth crying over,' she says, but she's joking and she knows he can tell.

'_You wound me, Pepper,' _Tony says, and Pepper feels like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

'Where are you?' she asks, sitting upright and turning the light on.

'_Air Force medical base in Afghanistan,' _he says. _'Rhodey found me, I'm coming home tomorrow Pep, leave a light shining in the window for me.'_

'Are you kidding? I'm going to leave _all _the lights on so there's no chance of you getting lost on the way here,' she tells him, silent tears flowing down her cheeks.

'_Mind the electricity bill!' _he grumbles.

'You're a billionaire, you can afford it,' she tells him, laughter in her voice.

She can practically hear his smile over the phone, and then she hears voices in the background and Tony talking to someone. She clutches the phone tightly, not ready to hang up yet, wanting to hear his voice that little bit longer.

'_Gotta go, Pep, apparently I'm not meant to be making long distance phone calls,' _he sighs.

Pepper laughs, she can't help it, stealing a phone and rebelling against the rules is such a _Tony _thing to do.

'_That's a nice sound,' _Tony tells her. _'Do that again.'_

'You'll have to tell me something funny then,' Pepper teases.

'_Oh I see what you're doing, getting me to stay on the phone a little bit longer, you're a bad influence on me, Potts.'_

'Years of working for you,' Pepper says smiling. 'I've developed a rebellious streak.'

'_Good, proud of you, Pep,' _Tony tells her, and there actually is pride in his voice. _'A brunette, a blond, and a red-head fall off a cliff, who hits the ground last?'_

'Who?'

'_The blond, because she has to stop and ask for directions on the way down.' _

That puts Pepper in peals of laughter, not because it's particularly funny (in fact to be honest, it's rubbish even by Tony's standards) but because he's alive, and he's coming home, and she's talking to him, and she missed him, and he's trying to make her laugh because he likes the sound.

Tony chuckles on the other end of the phone. _'Remind me to get you to laugh more, Potts,' _he tells her, then there are more voices and Tony sighs. '_Okay, now I really do have to go before Rhodey strangles me with the phone cable,' _he says.

'I'll see you soon,' Pepper tells him, happy that she now knows it's true.

'_Yeah you will, missed you, Pepperpot,' _then there's the dialling tone before Pepper can respond and she's sat on her bed with a stupid grin all over her face.

(When Tony arrives back at his house the next night, he does find _every single light _turned on. It's a big mansion too; there are a _lot of lights._)

Tony's been back for four days now, and Pepper has already had to stick her hand in his chest and deal with him announcing to the whole world that Stark Industries, a weapons company, is _no longer making weapons. _THE EMAILS. She was tempted, _so _tempted, to get JARVIS to delete them all, but that would be unprofessional and someone has to professional in the strange relationship they have, there's certainly not chance of it being Tony.

Pepper finds her boss sound asleep and out like a light on the living room floor, one cushion tucked under his head, one hand clawing at the soft material of the carpet, with the shades half down.

Pepper mentally works out the time difference between California and Afghanistan and determines that it would be well into the night in Afghanistan, possibly explaining why Tony is fast asleep at three o'clock on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Not that he hasn't fallen asleep at inappropriate times of day before, he's just been doing a lot more since he came back.

Tony stirs and mumbles into the rug, sounding distressed. Without even really thinking about it, Pepper drops down and runs her fingers soothingly through his dark hair, lulling him back to sleep. He snuffles against the rug and his muscles relax, he mumbles something unintelligible and Pepper retrieves the rug from the back of the sofa and drapes it over him, tucking it around his body. He sighs and curls into a ball, clutching the soft edge of the blanket. Pepper sits back on the couch and pulls her laptop out of her bag, firing up her emails and schedule as she watches Tony drool into his $1200 rug.

He doesn't wake up till 10 o'clock that evening, and Pepper has just finished answering the important emails and is stretching her arms and legs and debating ordering a pizza.

'Hmmm,' Tony mumbles into the rug and rolls onto his back, one arm flopping above his head as his eyes open slowly and he blinks a couple of times at the ceiling. _Like a sleepy kitten, _Pepper thinks to herself.

'Evening,' she says softly.

'Hmm,' Tony says again, rolling back onto his side and watching his assistant rotate her ankle to crack it, her heels abandoned by the side of the sofa. He can't help but notice how pretty she looks today with her hair down wearing a blue sleeveless top and a grey pencil skirt.

'You're staring at me,' she says without even looking up from her laptop.

'Hmm,' is the response she gets as her boss stretches under the blanket and there is the sound of various joints clicking.

He falls asleep again and Pepper orders a ham and pineapple for herself and a meat feast with extra sides for her boss, knowing he'll be starving when he properly wakes up.

She nips upstairs to change into jeans and an old sweatshirt so she doesn't get pizza grease over her smart work clothes (she started keeping spare clothes at her boss's house after the 'Fire Extinguisher/Oil incident' of 2002). When she gets back downstairs Tony has moved to the sofa and is fast asleep on the (admittedly much softer) fabric, right next to her previous spot, Pepper notices. She sits next to him and retrieves her laptop, balancing it on her knees and tucking her hair behind her ear as she continues working.

Halfway through email 3,023, Tony becomes restless again and rolls onto his back, moaning and reaching out at unseen foes. Without even looking at him, Pepper's hand drops to his hair and she scratches his scalp until he calms again and rolls back onto his side, then he wiggles like he's uncomfortable and flops onto his front, making Pepper wonder if the Arc Reactor is bothering him. He curls against her legs and is motionless in seconds, and Pepper looks down at her boss sleeping quietly by her side, the fingers of his right hand clutching at the fabric of her pencil skirt.

Pepper pushes the hair away from his face and traces the small cuts on his temple with one finger. His head turns towards her fingers and he presses his head against her thighs, taking a deep breath in and Pepper realises that sleeping Tony. is. sniffing. her. As if he's reassured by her scent, he stills and Pepper is able to return her hand to her laptop and finish her emails.

JARVIS informs her that the pizza has arrived and she sets her laptop down on the table and manoeuvers Tony's hand off her thigh (how it got there she isn't sure, but she knows after years of finding him passed out in various places that Tony will latch onto the nearest closest object when he's asleep).

When she comes back (expertly balancing pizza boxes in her hands) Tony is on his back again and rubbing his chest, his face is screwed up in pain and Pepper is terrified that the Arc has stopped working and she'll have to stick her hand in his chest _again _(because once wasn't traumatic enough), but JARVIS quietly informs her that the Arc is functioning as it should and the area around the device is still sore and healing.

Pepper leaves the boxes on the coffee table with her laptop and cautiously drops her hand onto Tony's chest where he's rubbing and gently massages the area, fingers deftly pressing into his skin and easing out the tension.

'Hmmm, feels nice,' he mumbles.

'Don't expect this normally,' Pepper tells him, pressing on the area around the reactor but keeping away from the red torn skin in the centre. A tear rolls down her cheek and Tony's half-opened eyes catch it. He frowns and pushes himself upwards to face her.

'Hey,' he says, catching her hands and holding them against the reactor tightly. 'Don't cry.'

Pepper's head drops down and Tony scoots closer to her. 'What's the matter?' he asks, head titled to one side.

'That,' Pepper says, tapping the Arc with one finger. 'That is the matter.'

'It's keeping me alive, Pepper,' Tony says gently.

'They sawed out chunks of your ribs and part of your sternum and put _that _in,' Pepper cries, poking it again. 'They left you with a gaping hole in your chest, Tony.'

'Hey, hey, Pepper,' Tony murmurs gently. 'It's okay, it doesn't hurt.'

Pepper gives him a look and he wipes her tears away with the pad of his thumb. 'Okay, maybe it hurts a little, but only because it's healing.'

Pepper drops her head onto his chest and Tony wraps his arms around her, holding her tightly against him and clutching her like he can't bear to let go, burying his face in her hair. They stay like that for a few minutes, then the smell of pizza begins to waft into his nostrils and he looks up, sniffing the air.

'Pepper,' he says gently, nuzzling her cheek with his nose. 'I'm okay, really. I'm back.'

'Good,' she says into his neck, and reluctantly releases her hold on him so he can open the pizza box and stuff his face.

They end up relaxing against each other with Pepper leaning against his shoulder as they share the box of garlic bread and mozzarella sticks and watch _Singing in the Rain_, cheesy yes, but it was the only thing that was really good on TV.

Rhodey finds them the next morning fast asleep and using each other as pillows. He pinches a slice of cold pizza, takes a photo on his phone (totally for blackmail purposes, Tony has far too many of him) and walks into the kitchen to turn the kettle on, wondering when his best mate will man up and ask the woman he's been in love with for years on a date.

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_Please review! And let me know if you want naughty things next chapter._


	5. The Fifth Time

_99% of you wanted porn! You all need medical attention, see you in therapy :) This chapter sadly contains no porn, as I couldn't get it to fit in with the mood of the chapter so I will post the last chapter shortly then add, as a bonus, the original chapter 4 in all its uncut-smutty glory._

_I'm very proud of this chapter and the fluff therein :)_

_Thank you for sticking with me so far, I hope the promise of smut will make it worth your while :) Please review! And to everyone that does (including the guests I can't respond to), thank you so very much :)_

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**The Fifth Time**

She finds out about the whole 'Loki taking over the city' thing while she's thousands of feet up in the air enjoying a hot cup of coffee with her PA and two of the Stark architects. The TV is on behind them as they sketch out ideas for the next couple of buildings and (aside from Tony's witty texts as he keeps her updated) she has no idea of what is happening in the city she was in barely eight hours ago until her PA gasps in shock and she turns round to see strange creatures on what look like flying jet skis zooming through the air and the man she loves taking on at least thirty of them.

Pepper feels her chest constrict with panic and for a moment it feels like she can't breathe. All she can think about are her last words to him and the fleeting kiss she left on his lips. He could die today, and he'd never know how much she loves him.

She debates calling him, but he looks pretty distracted and she wants him to focus on what's in front of him, on the creatures destroying the city, and _holy fuck what is going on with the tower? _Pepper can't see much, she doesn't know who's filming but it's erratic as the cameraman ducks for cover when aliens fly overhead, all she can see is that the blue light which is keeping the portal open seems to be coming from the balcony of Stark Tower, her 12% of a baby.

A strange man in a cape (that Pepper assumes is Thor) lands on the Empire State Building and the whole tower becomes alive with electricity, zapping aliens out of the sky left right and centre. A huge mutant space whale flies through the air and she spies Tony firing missiles at it.

'Oh my god,' Abigail (one of the SI architects) gasps, hands covering her mouth. 'My family's down there!'

Pepper's PA Alex has gone white and she can feel her fingers clutching the fabric of the seat and _shit did Tony just fly into a whale's mouth?!_

Thankfully, the camera covers him flying out again and crashing into the pavement, immediately trying to get to his feet as a swarm of aliens cover him, firing their weapons and trying to keep the armoured Avenger on the ground.

Pepper feels sick.

The fight continues around them but Pepper isn't paying attention, only watching the screen to see Tony, to see the love of her life be as courageous as she's ever known him, to see him fight side by side with people he barely knows and probably doesn't even like that much. Apart from the Hulk, she has a sneaky suspicion he probably likes the Hulk.

She realises then, in her gut, that Tony was right all long. She is widely conflicted, crazy about him, and so proud of the man he's become.

'… _no information on the team, but we do know that billionaire Tony Stark's Iron Man…'_

_Oh my god, Tony… please let that not be a missile, please._

Pepper can't move, she can't breathe, she can only sit paralysed with fear as Tony flies through the air, with what looks like a nuclear missile on his back (she's worked at SI for long enough to be able to tell the difference), scraping the sides of the tower and flying up up up towards the portal…

… and disappearing through it…

… and not coming out again.

Her PA squeezes her arm and she gasps, choking breaths rattling her small frame as she watches, holding on to the seat for dear life, watching and waiting for him to come back through. He's going to come back, he has to, he's Tony Stark, a cave full of terrorists couldn't contain him, space is nothing in comparison, it's miniscule.

_Tony come on, come on Tony, please Tony, come on!_

'Ms Potts,' Abigail says, and Pepper doesn't even have to look at her to know that her face will be streaked with tears.

The camera pans out and Pepper can see the aliens collapsing in the roads, around a confused looking Captain America and Thor, in the corner of her eye she spies what looks like Hawkeye crashing through a window, but she barely sees it. The battle is over, the aliens are defeated.

_Where are you, Tony?_

The portal is shrinking now, getting smaller and smaller and disappearing into nothingness, and Tony isn't coming through. Pepper is glad she's sat down because she doesn't think her legs would be able to hold her right now. She turns her head to her team, whose faces are pale and whose cheeks are streaked with tears. They all look so utterly miserable and heartbroken for her that Pepper doesn't know what to say. Then she spies her phone left by the window and the five words that make her heart stop.

_1 missed call: Tony Stark._

No. NO.

'_You were going to tell me? You really were dying? Why didn't you tell me that?'_

She made him promise after the expo disaster to tell her to give her advance warning next time he was dying or something catastrophic was about to happen.

She'd made him promise.

And she hadn't answered her phone.

'Ms Potts!' Lucy (the other SI architect) gasps, grabbing her other arm.

Pepper turns round to face the TV just in time to see Tony fall through the portal as it snaps shut behind.

And he's still falling.

_Come on! Fire your thrusters! What's the point in being able to fly if you _don't?!

Falling… falling…

_Come on Tony, come on Tony._

Then, like a big green guardian angel, Hulk leaps to his rescue, grabbing him by his armoured waist and taking the full impact as they crash to the ground, out of sight of the cameras.

Pepper has no idea if he's alive or not.

Alex, Lucy and Abigail are all howling abuse at the TV for not showing them if their boss (they still think of him as their boss, even if Pepper is CEO now) is alive or not, the newsreader is not helping at all, if anything she seems more panicky and agitated than the rest of them.

Pepper stands up and marches into the cockpit.

'Turn us around. Now,' she tells the pilot.

He doesn't bother questioning her order and does what she asks immediately, even though air traffic control is ordering all pilots to stay away from New York. He makes an excuse of hit-by-aliens-not-enough-fuel and they grudgingly allow him access back into the NY flight zone. No-one argues with Ms Potts when she's in this kind of mood.

The tower is quiet as Pepper makes her way up to their floor. The few employees left in the building are clinging to each other and don't say a word to their boss as she half-walks half-runs to the elevator. It's midnight, the sky outside is dark and she can hear sirens coming from all directions.

The penthouse (and JARVIS) is surprisingly quiet, but Pepper can hear running water from the direction of the bathroom. She stands in the doorway, takes a deep breath, and pushes the door open.

Tony, _her _Tony, is stood in front of the mirror battered, bruised, but very much alive. He catches her reflection in the mirror and pivots round to face her. He's shirtless, and Pepper can see a huge chunky bruise that starts at his midriff and trails round to the base of his spine, clearly the imprint Hulk's arm left on his skin. There's a large cut above his right eye and scratches on his face, the water in the sink is running red and she realises that he's trying to patch himself up the best he can without her assistance.

'Pepper,' he gasps. 'Pepper.'

He stumbles drunkenly towards her and clutches at her, pulling her against him and burying his face in her neck. She can feel wetness against her skin and realises he's crying, then realises she is as well.

'Oh, Tony,' she moans, clutching at his hair with one hand and his skin with the other, holding him tightly.

'Pepper,' he whispers into her neck, digging his fingers into her waist and shaking with emotion.

She pulls away from him and reaches for his face. She can taste blood against his lips but she holds him still against her and kisses him long and hard, her cool hands roaming soothingly along his hot, sore skin, lips and tongue attacking his. This isn't just a kiss; this is primal need and desire.

They break apart and Pepper rests her head against his, breathing him in. The cut on his forehead has opened up again and his eyes are half-closed with exhaustion. She realises then that he's been waiting for her, keeping himself awake so he can be sure she's okay.

'JARVIS, shower, extra hot,' she says softly, and pulls her top off and over her head.

The two of them climb naked into the shower and she sits Tony down on the small shower alcove in the shower stall. This isn't the first time they've been naked in the shower together, but Tony doesn't even try anything, content to just hold her against him and grip her bare skin with his fingers. His face is expressionless, his eyes are closed, and Pepper wishes she knew what he was thinking.

She props him forward and cleans his wounds while he snoozes against the wall of the shower. She turns the water off and wraps the both of them in a towel so she can dress his cuts and rub soothing balm into the bruise on his abdomen. She kisses his forehead and wakes him enough to get him out of the shower, dressed in warm clothes and tucked in bed securely in her arms where he buries his head in her chest and keeps his hands holding onto her as he sleeps, like he's worried that if he lets go, she'll disappear.

Pepper wakes up first when JARVIS informs her quietly that the time is 8am and she has 894 missed calls. Pepper tells him to let them all go to voicemail and watches Tony's face for a little longer as he sleeps. Her back is to the window so she can't see the mess New York is in that morning and can focus instead on the black bruise the man she loves has forming above his eye. She hasn't seen him this deeply asleep for a while, buried against her body, mouth slack and face relaxed, she can imagine what he would have looked like as a young child; full of innocence.

He snuffles against her and presses his lips to the skin on her collarbone. 'You're staring at me,' he murmurs sleepily.

'I was just thinking how cute you are when you're sleeping,' Pepper replies, running her fingers through his hair.

'Cute?' he says, one eye opening lazily and practically purring at the sensation of her warm fingers tangled in his hair.

'And handsome,' she adds, smiling as he pulls her a little tighter against him.

His eyes open and he smiles, and it's a lovely, warm, _Tony _smile, the special one he reserves just for her, the one she's been seeing a lot more of recently since she started climbing between the sheets with him. He's ridiculously affectionate in the mornings, Pepper's noticed.

Then his face grows more serious and he pushes himself up onto one elbow, and Pepper can tell he's about to drop a bomb on her, she takes a deep breath and waits for it.

'I love you.'

Her face goes slack and she looks at him as he fidgets nervously with the hem of the shirt she went to sleep in, not able to quite meet her eyes until she lifts his chin with her hand and presses her lips soft against his.

'I love you too,' she says warmly, and the expression in his chocolate brown eyes positively melts her heart as he beams happily at her and showers her face with kisses, like an over-excited puppy.

She laughs and pulls him down against her as he kisses her fiercely, hands not leaving her skin for a minute.

She can stay in bed a moment longer; her boyfriend just saved the city for crying out loud, he deserves some attention.

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_Please review lovely people!_


	6. And One Time She Hugs Him

_Guess who finally updated? :) Sorry, I was on holiday :) Anyway here you go, last chapter, and soon you'll get a bonus chapter filled with porn for those who wanted it._

_Thank you for sticking with it, I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you so much for all your reviews and email alerts :D You rock, I love you ^_^_

_May I please ask, once again, please review :)_

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… and one time she hugs him.

**The First Time**

Tony and Bruce get Pepper fixed up. Pepper's sure Tony could have done it himself; in fact he did, but he insists on dragging Bruce halfway across the world just so he can check his math.

Which, of course, is already perfect.

Tony doesn't want to take chances. He keeps telling Pepper she's still normal, she's still _her, _and he still loves her, and to be perfectly honest Pepper is sure he'd be encouraging her to keep Extremis if there wasn't a chance of her bursting into flames.

Tony definitely doesn't want to take that risk.

The first night they shared the same bed after being separated was also the same night that they blew up the Roxxon Oil Drill. They were in a hostel on the edge of the city, hiding away from the press and the world for a few more hours that they could spend wrapped in each other's arms.

Pepper has a nightmare and sets the bed (and Tony's hair) on fire.

After tipping a bottle of water over her boyfriend's head she then locks herself in the bathroom and sits on the floor with her head buried between her knees, trying to ignore Tony's pleas for her to open the door so they can talk about it.

(She does open the door, eventually, but refuses to let Tony touch her and by the time he manages to wrap his arms around her both of them are crying from exhaustion and panic).

Pepper hides away from the press until Tony and Bruce do their thing and fix her up. She also refuses to sleep in the same bed as Tony, something which upsets him greatly (even though he understands), but once they're back in New York (which Tony is _not happy _about) he agrees to let her sleep in their bed and he'll sleep in one of the guest rooms.

She always finds him curled on the floor in their room wrapped in a blanket the next morning though; refusing to leave her side even though she nearly set him on fire, more than once too.

They can't hide from the press forever, and Tony has to give a statement. One of the questions raised from a reporter is 'where were your Avenger friends when you needed them?' a little question which Tony easily brushes off with a 'probably on a beach in Hawaii' but Pepper and Bruce (watching off stage) can see him gripping the edge of the podium so firmly his knuckles are turning white.

Rhodey sees this too, and quickly steps up onto the stage, announces the end of questions and pulls his friend off. Tony collapses into her arms and she holds him tightly while Bruce takes his pulse and keeps telling him to breathe deeply.

The night after they inject her with the antidote, Pepper is still reluctant to go near Tony. She can't feel the heat coursing through her skin anymore, but this is the man she loves, she can't risk hurting him. Tony doesn't take no for an answer, and finds her sat on the balcony in the late evening, watching the city lights twinkling around her. He pulls her into his arms and kisses her firmly on the mouth. Pepper can't say no, she's spent a week trying to stay away from him so she can limit the chance of her setting him on fire and now his mouth is soft and his arms are warm and he smells the way he always does, engine oil, shampoo, and something distinctly _him._

Pepper can't resist, and she ends up dragging him inside, stripping them both of their clothes and making love on the sofa beneath a blanket, slow and passionate, focusing only on the feel of the man in her arms and the heat of his skin against hers as their bodies merge into one and her head swims and her heart beats and Tony kisses his way down her chest.

They wake up the next morning in each other's arms and Pepper can feel his warm breath on her neck and the gentle beat of his heart and she ends up waking him up with a kiss so they can go at it again.

On New Year's Eve, they step out together into Times Square with Bruce and Rhodey and welcome in the New Year as the fireworks shoot up above their heads and the crowd roars its approval. They kiss as the clock strikes midnight and hold each other. It's been a tough year, an awful year, but they survived it.

A teenage girl taking photos of the scene uploads them onto Facebook, and soon enough there are comments on the photo of 'OMG IS THAT PEPPERONY MAKING OUT IN THE BACKGROUND?' and before you know it the photo is viral and all over the internet and Pepper and Tony sit back and enjoy the chaos. There have been a lot of false reports in the press recently, mainly because the Power Couple behind Stark Industries haven't been seen in public since their Malibu home was destroyed, and the majority of America is under the impression they've broken up since they are never shown together.

They both appear on Ellen together and set the record straight and there is not a dry eye in the audience by the end of the interview. When Pepper tells the crowd how Tony directed the suit onto her so she wouldn't be hurt, someone shouts 'I LOVE YOU PEPPERONY' and the two stare with smirks on their faces at the person who said it. (Gary, Tony's Chattanooga friend, is the culprit)

They're in bed together a few days later and Pepper is asleep curled against his side while Tony stares at the ceiling, holds Pepper with one arm, and taps the Arc with the other.

As happy as they are, being in New York is stirring up a lot of bad memories and Tony is getting asked about the Avengers and Loki and the Chitauri a _lot _and it really isn't doing him any favours. (He had a quiet word with Ellen before the show in which she promises him not to bring it up, that could have been embarrassing)

He absentmindedly strokes Pepper's hair and she mumbles and buries further into his skin, one arm resting protectively across his waist.

'JARVIS, call Dr Wu, set up a teleconference at his earliest convenience,' Tony tells the AI quietly and JARVIS hmms in response so as not to wake Pepper.

When the conference is arranged, Tony tells Pepper about his idea and she goes nearly white with terror at the very prospect. She hates the Arc with every fibre of her being, hates what it represents, hates its purpose, but she knows at the same time that without it, the man she loves wouldn't be here. So she listens to Dr Wu and she talks to Tony and even though the surgery is _incredibly risky _and there is a _very high chance _he could die on the table, it's what he wants, so she kisses him and squeezes his hand and promises to stay by his side supporting him like she always does.

(And if she cuddles him a little harder that night neither of them mentions it)

**XxXxXxX**

Warmth.

That is the first sensation Tony feels when he comes round. His head is a little fuzzy, his chest feels heavy and he's pretty sure that if he tries to speak all that will come out of his mouth are gargled noises, but he feels warm. For the first time in months, his heart is beating normally on its own, there are no shards of metal in his chest, and he's not dependant on something that could (and nearly did) kill him in a second.

His eyes open slowly and he breathes in the clean air in his room. He knows he isn't allowed visitors for a while, the operation was exceedingly dangerous, there was a massive risk of infection and Dr Wu refused to take the risk.

A flash of red catches his eye and Tony frowns at it, blinking a few times to wake himself up, then a slow, wide smile stretches across his face.

Pepper. His Pepper. Alive and well. No more Extremis, no more unstable molecules, only her. Perfect and alive.

Her arms are crossed tightly over her chest and her face has _'please be okay' _written all over it. By her side, Rhodey holds up his thumb at his best friend, and Tony somehow manages to return the gesture and smile weakly at the love of his life.

He falls asleep again pretty quickly after that and doses through the next couple of days. Nurses and doctors come and go and his dressings are changed and he's given more morphine regularly and by the time he wakes up on day four Pepper is sat in the chair by his bed, dressed in jeans and his old MIT sweatshirt, clutching his hand tightly in hers and resting it against the side of her face.

Tony watches her for a few moments. She looks tired, her eyes are closed and she's rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand slowly. Tony takes a deep breath and it stings a little but the pain isn't too bad and he wants to see her face.

'Pep…' the sound leaving his mouth is miniscule and tiny and his throat feels sore and rusty but Pepper's head snaps up and she looks so happy Tony can feel his new heart beating a little faster.

'Your hand is warm,' she says, smiling. 'Actually warm, the way your skin used to feel.'

'I knew you'd been feeling me up all these years,' he croaks.

Pepper leans down and teases his lips with hers gently, resting her cheek against the side of his. Tony's hand squeezes hers and his heart feels heavy in his chest.

'I love you, baby,' he says quietly, eyes closed as he feels the pull of the painkillers pulling him under again.

'I love you too,' Pepper responds, kissing his cheek and tucking the blanket around him. 'Go to sleep, I'm not going anywhere.'

**XxXxXxX**

It's weeks later and the pair have taken a well-deserved vacation to Sorrento (a little town on the southern border of Italy) so Tony can rest and heal and they can leave the bad memories of New York behind them for a little while. They're strolling through the streets holding hands and watching the sun set. In front of them, Mount Vesuvius looms over the Bay of Naples and they sit on the wooden dock by the water and cuddle as the volcano disappears into the dark sky.

Tony lies back against the wooden slates and pulls Pepper onto his chest. They lie there for a few moments, watching the stars twinkle above them. When they start to get a little sleepy they clamber to their feet and make their way back to their little hotel. It was Pepper's idea to stay in a hotel; she wanted to feel as secluded as possible, away from the press, away from the company, away from danger. As a disguise, Pepper has temporarily dyed her hair blond and Tony has shaved off his trademark goatee. As disguises go they're not great, but no-one's called them out on it yet.

She leans into Tony's side as they make their way along the cobbled streets, underneath the orange trees. There's no-one about and Tony sneakily pulls two oranges off one of the trees and tucks them beneath his jacket.

'Tony!' Pepper laughs. 'I'm pretty sure that's illegal.'

'They have plenty of oranges,' he counters, tucking her against his side. 'I'm sure they can miss one or two.'

They then pinch a knife from the hotel kitchen and eat the oranges on the balcony under the calm night sky. Pepper pulls Tony into her arms, pulls a blanket over their heads and kisses him repeatedly. He tastes like oranges and his arms are warm and safe. They get to their feet and stumble into their room still kissing, stripping each other of their clothes as they go.

Pepper pushes Tony up against the wall and traces the healing scar on his chest. In order to accommodate the hole left from the Arc, Dr Wu had to insert a sternal prosthesis, something which is still quite a revolutionary technique. She can feel the metal of the implant under her fingers and not being able to tap the blue light of the Arc is something she still isn't quite used to.

'I'm okay, baby,' Tony whispers in her ear, kissing her neck.

Pepper tilts her head to the side so he has better access and smiles happily. It's been a while since she's been this content, this relaxed. Other people are worrying about the company, Happy is okay, Rhodey is supervising the rebuild of their Malibu home (Tony wants out of New York as fast as possible), and for the first time in months it's just her and Tony alone.

She wraps her arms around him and holds him tightly, burying her face in his neck. Tony reciprocates, nuzzling her with his nose and caressing her back. They're both stripped to the underwear and Pepper relishes in the warm feel of his body against hers, the stronger beating of his heart, his breath against the side of her cheek.

'I love you, Pepper,' he whispers to her. 'So much.'

'I love you too,' she responds, pulling back so she can kiss him and pull him onto the bed, all heat and skin. The nightmares are subdued, she's cured, he's no longer dependant on a huge chunk of metal lodged in his chest, Pepper can't remember the last time she felt this happy. Finally, their life can get back on track and they can start living normally again.

Well, normal for them anyway.

_Fin._


	7. Bonus

_Okay guys, here's your reward for sticking with me, first smut I've ever written. I wanted this story to kind of follow the movies so Tony and Pepper not getting together till the end of Iron Man 2 but when I was writing this (which as the original chapter 4) stuff just kind of happened… Anyway, I'm sure you can see why I didn't include it in the story so consider it a deleted scene or whatever._

_Please review! :D_

* * *

She's sat on a deckchair in a bikini, sunglasses on, plastered in suncream (she is a red-head after all), soaking up the sun with her sister on one side and her brother on the other.

The weather is perfect, blue skies, not a cloud in sight, and Pepper can feel the Californian sun warming her skin and relaxing her muscles after what has been, she has to say, the week from hell. Meetings galore, especially annoying members of the board, especially annoying boss that wouldn't go to any of the meetings she asked him to or do any of the work she wanted him to do. Complete nightmare and that was only on Monday.

Now though, she's putting all work out of her mind and is relaxing on the beach with her siblings enjoying the sun and the complementary cocktails that just keep coming (it turns out the bartender is in love with Tony after he fixed his old pick-up when it had been written off a couple of years ago and is still trying to pay him back) and are getting her ever so slightly buzzed.

Her sister sighs and turns her face to the sun then turns to look at Pepper and their brother, Jason.

'Well?' Lizzie asks. 'Aren't you going to tell Ginny your good news?'

Jason sits up and mimes doing a drumroll, then gives his sister a huge grin. 'I'm getting married!' he exclaims happily.

Pepper laughs and claps her hands. 'That's amazing news! Finally! Honestly, Jase, you took your time!'

'That's what my _fiancée _said when she said yes,' Jason says shrugging. 'Did I mention she's my _fiancée? _I have a _fiancée _now.'

'Congratulations!' Neil the bartender says on his way back with a tray full of empty glasses. 'A complementary bottle of champagne for the groom-to-be!'

Lizzie squeals excitedly. 'I LOVE your boss!' she exclaims. 'Remind me to come here more often.'

'How is working for Stark going?' Jason asks. 'You've worked with him for… what? Coming on nine years? No wedding bells in the distance for you?'

Pepper sprays her glass of champagne all over the sand and Lizzie laughs hysterically while she wipes her mouth with her towel.

'Ha ha,' Pepper deadpans. 'You're hilarious.'

'What? I'm being serious! I've seen the way the two of you look at each other, along with the rest of the planet. You bicker like an old married couple, you practically _live _together, you've adopted his kids…'

'What?' Pepper asks, confused.

'The bots!' Jason clarifies. 'You told us once that Dum-E and U were like Tony's kids. What's the AI's name again? Oh, JARVIS. Him too.'

'Honestly I'm amazed you can remember their names,' Pepper says, raising her glass in a mock toast to her brother.

Jason retaliates by giving his sister a mock bow. 'So when do we get the meet the famous Tony Stark, Pepper Potts' future husband?' he asks, innocently.

Pepper throws sand at him.

**XxXxXxX**

She stumbles up to the mansion around midnight that evening and Tony immediately confiscates her keys.

'Not fair,' she says, pouting at him, and then giggling when she sees he has a spot of oil on his nose.

'You don't let me drive when I'm drunk, so I'm returning the favour,' Tony says, chuckling.

'I swear to drunk I'm not god,' Pepper says seriously, hand over her heart, then frowning when she realises that sentence didn't come out right.

'I'm stone cold sob… sobr… silber…' she frowns and looks annoyed.

Tony can't help but grin. 'Any particular reason why you've had slightly too much?'

'MY BROTHER'S GETTING MARRIED!' Pepper exclaims, flinging her arms out and sending her phone flying into a corner. 'Oh,' she says confused as to how her phone suddenly developed the ability to fly, she didn't remember that upgrade.

'That is a good reason,' Tony says in acknowledgement, laughing as Pepper glares at her phone.

'Oooh and before I forget you're invited to the after-party!' Pepper says excitedly. 'Lizzie says you should be my date.' With this she makes a face and Tony smiles.

'Who's Lizzie?' he asks.

'My older sister,' Pepper says, making another face. 'She's annoying.'

'Well, you can tell your older sister that I would love to be your date for the reception,' Tony says, hands on hips indignantly. 'We've known each other for nine years so I should probably say hi to your family, wait… does your mother still hate me?'

'Yep,' Pepper smiles at him, popping the 'p'.

Tony frowns. 'Hmm, I'll have to stay out her way then.'

Then the oil on Tony's nose makes her laugh again and she has to clutch her sides.

'What's so funny?' Tony asks, frowning.

'You have oil on your nose!' Pepper says, pointing, before bursting into peals of laughter.

Tony rubs at his nose but misses the spot entirely which only makes Pepper laugh more. She steps up to him and removes the oil with the sleeve of her sweater.

Then realises how close she is to her boss and how tempting his soft full lips are. She's stopped laughing by this point and it's just her staring at Tony's mouth and Tony staring at her. Time seems to ground to a halt and Pepper finds her feet taking another step forward so she's so close to Tony she can feel the heat from his _oh so warm _body and can smell the familiar scent of his shampoo mixed with engine oil.

'Pepper…' Tony says softly when she brings a hand up to his hair and pulls his head down so their foreheads are resting against each other. She can feel her heart pounding in her ribcage and drops her hand down from his hair to his chest, where she can feel his heart beating fiercely against her fingertips.

'Tony…' Pepper responds, suddenly feeling a lot more sober then she did a minute ago and gripping his bicep tightly with her other hand, leaning up towards him.

Tony's warm strong arm snakes around her waist while his other hand tangles up in her hair, running the strands through his fingers. His eyes are very dark and his expression is nearly unreadable, but his lips are parted and he doesn't complain as Pepper leans up to kiss him…

… but he pulls away just before their lips touch and pain is written across his face for a second, before it vanishes and it's just Pepper stood alone with her arms outstretched reaching for him.

'I can't,' he says softly. 'And you can't either; you're not thinking straight, you'll regret this in the morning.'

'I won't,' Pepper says, and her tone is so heartbroken that the flash of pain appears on Tony's face again.

'I respect you too much,' he says, dropping his head down in defeat. 'I want you to be sure, Pep, and right now you're not sure and I'd just be taking advantage which I swore I'd never do to you.'

'You do it to everyone else,' Pepper says quietly, venom in her voice.

'But they're not you,' Tony says, looking up at her sadly, and his usually warm brown eyes are full of agony.

Pepper isn't sure what to say to that, so she looks down at her feet, then over to the corner when her phone still resides, suddenly feeling completely sober.

'Goodnight, Tony,' she says quietly, and walks past him to go upstairs.

'Pepper,' Tony says, turning round when she's halfway up. She doesn't turn around but stops, and Tony can see the sand in her red hair, and the small red sunburn on her shoulders, and he doesn't think she's ever looked more beautiful. 'That wasn't a "no",' he says. 'It was a "not yet".'

'I know,' Pepper mumbles. 'Goodnight, Tony.'

'Night, Pepper,' Tony murmurs, but she's already gone.

**XxXxXxX**

The next morning, Pepper wakes up in the guest room of Stark Mansion with no idea of how she got there, a pounding headache, a dry mouth, a bed full of sand, and a feeling like her heart has been ripped from her chest and stomped on. How that feeling has gotten there, however, she isn't sure.

Pepper manages to get herself out of bed once she stops panicking when JARVIS reassures her it's a Sunday and she hasn't missed any important meetings, and showers; feeling like the entire beach is in the shower with her. Dressing in a casual pair of skinny jeans and a button-down shirt (she always keeps spare clothes at the mansion, force of habit), she makes her way hesitantly downstairs, leaving her hair down to dry in natural waves.

She finds her phone in the corner tucked between the piano and the sofa with a message from her sister on it asking if she got home okay. Pepper isn't sure what to say to that, so she simply puts: _'I'm okay, can't remember a lot of what happened last night' _and leaves it at that, making toast in the kitchen and bringing a slice down for her boss, who never remembers to eat in the morning.

Tony is sat slumped at his desk and his posture tells her that he's been sat like that unmoving all night. He looks up when the door opens and his face is so downtrodden that Pepper wants to run over to him and throw her arms around him and never let go.

'Morning,' she says, handing him the plate with toast and wincing when he straightens up and his back makes an ominous clicking noise.

'Hey,' he says, rubbing a knot under his shoulder-blade and eyeing her warily.

'Is everything okay?' Pepper asks. She wants to know where her keys are and why she woke up at his house, she assumes it's because Tony wouldn't let her drive home, but there's something about her boss this morning that makes her feel both angry with him, and crestfallen.

'Yeah, course it is,' Tony says, giving up on dealing with his shoulder-blade and tucking into the toast, and Pepper can tell just from that sentence that no, everything isn't okay and something happened last night that he isn't going to tell her about unless she makes him and threatens him with back to back budget meetings.

She finishes her toast and puts her plate down, standing up behind him and digging her thumb into the knot under his skin. His muscles tense for a second and then relax, and Pepper presses firmer into it and rubs around the area until she can feel the knot dissipate and his back slump into a better posture against the back of the chair.

Tony sighs in relief and Pepper sits back down next to him and tilts an eyebrow. 'What are you not telling me?' she asks.

'Don't you remember anything that happened last night?' Tony asks after a pause and Pepper backtracks, her eyebrows shooting up into her hairline in a blind panic that they _did _something.

'No,' Tony says, holding his hands up when he sees the look on her face. 'Nothing happened, we were just talking about some stuff, do you not remember it?'

'I don't even remember how I got back to the house from the beach,' Pepper tells him, rubbing her head.

'_Your brother dropped you off,' _JARVIS informed her.

Pepper frowns, then shrugs and looks back at her boss. 'So?' she asks. 'What were we talking about?'

'Well,' Tony says slowly. 'You told me your brother was engaged and that I was invited to the reception, you then asked me to be your date for the reception, laughed at me for a while because I had oil on my nose, then went to bed.'

Pepper gives him a look. 'I asked you to be my date? Really?'

'Cross my heart, Potts,' Tony says, miming the action. 'I said yes too, by the way, if you get desperate.'

'I'll bear that in mind,' Pepper says, frowning again then noticing the way he was completely avoiding eye contact with her.

'Tony,' she says softly, putting a hand on his arm and making him jump. 'When I look at you I get the urge to either punch you, or hug you, why is that?'

'Isn't that the way you feel normally?' Tony smirks at her and she glares at him and lets go of his arm.

'When you decide you want to tell me the truth, give me a call,' she says, standing up to leave. 'I'm going shopping. Will that be all, Mr Stark?'

'That will be all, Miss Potts,' Tony replies sadly as he watches her leave the garage.

**XxXxXxX**

It's months later and Pepper is listening to her new sister-in-law as she gushes about the house her and her new husband are about to buy. Pepper is smiling in all the right places and suggesting décor which Susanne laps up excitedly.

'You're so good at this!' she says approvingly. 'You _must _help me decorate the house, we both know Jason won't.'

Pepper laughs. 'He'll put a nail in then crack open a beer and take a break on the settee,' she agrees.

The band starts playing something waltz-y and soft and Jason comes over to lead his new bride to the dance-floor, smiling apologetically at his sister who gives him a wave as their guests clap as they start dancing.

'You look amazing,' says a familiar voice by her left ear and Pepper doesn't even have to turn around to know who it is.

'What are you doing here?' she asks, watching the other guests filter onto the dance floor.

'You invited me,' Tony Stark says, shrugging. 'Well technically, your brother invited me.'

'What?' Pepper says, turning round and looking at him quizzically. She has to admit he does look handsome, freshly showered with his dark hair curling at the back of his neck, wearing a grey suit with a blue tie, smelling of expensive cologne, a drink pressed into his hand and giving her his 'Tony' smile, the one he only shares with her, and sometimes Rhodey.

'Remember that night months ago when you turned up ridiculously drunk and asked me to be your date to your brother's wedding?'

'No, I don't remember that,' Pepper says, wincing and turning back to the dance floor where her brother and Susanne are in a world of their own, smiling lovingly at each other. Pepper wishes she could find someone to smile at her like that, someone to hold onto her and never let her go, someone to wake her up each morning by telling her she was beautiful and he loved her.

'I do however remember the morning where I got the impression that something had happened between us that you refused to tell me about,' she continues. 'You then proceeded to give me the cold shoulder for two weeks and only started behaving like your normal charming self again when I stayed late one night so you had someone to show you how to make cookies when you developed a sudden craving as I was about to leave.'

'They were good cookies,' Tony agrees, nodding approvingly at the memory.

Pepper sighs. 'What are you doing here?' she asks again.

'That night, you said your brother invited me, but then I thought maybe I shouldn't go since you didn't remember and didn't ask again,' Tony explains shrugging, and Pepper notices that the liquid in his glass isn't vodka, as she first assumed, but water.

'Then why are you here?' Pepper asks confused.

'Your brother stole your phone and told me to come dance with you,' he says, smirking at her.

Pepper pulls her phone out of her clutch purse and opens up her 'sent' messages; sure enough there is a message to her boss that she hadn't sent.

'_Hey, Stark! Jason here (Ginny's brother), totally stole my sister's phone. I don't know if Gin gave you my invite to my wedding but it's tonight so if want to come, get your butt over here, man.'_

'This does not say we have to dance,' Pepper tells him, giving him a look.

'It was implied,' Tony says, finishing his water and taking her hand, pulling her onto the dance floor.

'This is inappropriate,' Pepper whispers to him, and he responds by moving them to the shadows so it's harder for the guests to identify the two figures dancing in the gloom.

'You look beautiful, Pep,' Tony tells her, and she can tell by his tone he's being serious. 'That is a dress that needs to be danced in.'

Pepper has to admit she's looking pretty stunning in her full length silver gown that glitters when it catches the light. Her hair is half down-half up, her makeup is applied subtly, but in a way that gives her face a youthful look, in her shoes she's the same height as her boss, and she can feel her heart pounding in her chest at the way he's looking at her as they slow-waltz.

'Tony…' she says softly as a memory stirs of the two of them being as close as this, and a warm needy feeling starts to spread in her stomach.

'Yes, Pep?' he asks, and she notices his dark eyes look like chocolate in the gloomy light.

'What happened that night?' she asks, gripping his bicep and being hit like a wave at the familiarity of it.

Tony says nothing for a second, and then squeezes her hand. 'How about some air?' he asks.

Pepper nods and he leads them round the room and out onto the balcony where the moon is casting silver rays on the water below and the breeze smells like sea air and champagne. There are people on the balcony that look like they're half-recognising the sister-of-the-groom's famous boss, so he leads them down the steps and onto the beach, pausing a second so Pepper can remove her shoes and lift her dress up a little to prevent it from getting ruined.

They walk along the beach listening to the waves and Pepper waits for him to start talking. She's starting to feel a little light-headed and isn't sure if it's from the vodka martinis she's been devouring or the beating of her heart and the closeness of the man next to her and a memory that's trying to fight its way out of her brain.

'You came back late,' Tony says. 'You were sloshed to say the least, although not as bad as I've been in the past, and when I asked you why you were so happy you said your brother was getting married.'

Pepper doesn't remember any of this but listens intently anyway, his words are loosening the restraints on her memory and somehow she knows that he's telling the truth, it feels right, like it fits.

'You then said that your sister had told her I should be your date,' Tony says smiling. 'Then you started laughing because I had oil on my nose, and somehow you managed to throw your phone at the wall.'

Pepper winches, she does remember picking pieces of her BlackBerry up from the corner of the room.

'Then what?' she asks, and she can feel that sensation burning through her body. The feeling that they _did _something.

'Well,' Tony says, and swallows hard. 'Then you rubbed the oil off with your sleeve and…'

'What?' Pepper asks, turning his body so he has to face her.

'Well, then you put your hand in my hair and pulled your forehead against mine,' Tony says, pulling her against him and demonstrating the action, and Pepper can feel her heart beating so loudly she's sure he must be able to hear it. His hair is thick and soft and Pepper can feel the sensation of it twisting the key in her mind, like muscle memory as she softly plays with the curly strands she's always been so entranced with.

'Then?' Pepper asks, and her voice is at least an octave lower and barely a whisper.

'Then you put your hand on my chest,' Tony says, bringing it down (and she can feel his heart beating fiercely against his ribcage). 'And your other hand on my arm,' he puts it in place and she squeezes the firm muscle and knows instinctively that she's done this before. 'I put my arms round your waist,' he says, and does so, bringing her tighter against him. She notices that she's let go of her dress and without her shoes on, it's trailing in the sand, but she can't seem to find the energy to care.

'Tony…' Pepper says softly, staring at his lips.

'Then I put my hand in your hair,' Tony said, tangling his fingers in the silky-smoothness of her strawberry blond locks.

They're so close that Pepper can feel his breath on her cheek and his heart is beating out the samba against her fingers.

'Tony…' Pepper says again, and she can feel the blood pounding in her ears as Tony holds her against his firm, hard, warm body, eyes dark yet full of warmth.

She feels her eyes flitter close as she leans up towards his mouth, knowing what happens next and their lips press together and she tightens her hold on him, breathing him in as she opens her mouth and allows him entrance. His lips are as soft as she imagined and he's cupping her cheek with one hand and pulling her against him with the other, moving their lips together as they kiss like it's the last kiss they'll ever share.

She can feel him hard at her hip and she pulls his hand further up and above her waist. He takes the hint pretty well and tugs at her dress, sliding one hand up to cup her breast and rubbing her through the soft fabric. She tugs his shirt out from his trousers and runs her hands along the muscled skin around his stomach while all her mind can think is _'hot, firm, good.'_

He moans against her mouth as she grinds her hips against his hardness and squeezes her breast, pulling his mouth down against her neck and biting her skin and she _knows _it's going to leave marks in the morning but she can't seem to concentrate on that right now because his hands are undoing the zip on her dress and pushing it down her curves.

She breaks away from him so she can pull them both down on the warm sand and his eyes are full of lust and longing as he leans over her and unclasps her bra skilfully with one hand. She doesn't have time to think about how she's now topless on a beach at midnight because then Tony's mouth is covering her breast and _oooooh. _He nips and tugs and bites her nipple while one hand massages her other breast and the other trails down south along her stomach.

Pepper groans in pleasure and her mind tries to fight through the cloud of lust fogging her brain and she realises that Tony has far too many clothes on. She pulls him away from her breasts so she can pull his jacket off and tug his shirt over his head, leaving him shirtless in the cool night air, the Arc Reactor pressing against her chest as he returns his attention to her swollen lips, slipping his tongue effortlessly inside her mouth and doing things to her she didn't think were even possible. She knew the man had some talent at kissing but _oh _my _GOD._

She grounds her hips up against him and Tony moans into her mouth as she rubs herself against the hard ridge of his trousers.

'Ooooh, Pep…' he manages and she _loves _that she has this kind of control over him, that she can make him feel like this. One hand curls in his hair and she bites his bottom lip. He positively growls and she hears a _riiiip _as the delicate material of her panties are thrown away. She's completely naked now and exposed to the outside air, but it's a warm evening and Tony's body is radiating heat. He smells amazing and Pepper pushes his trousers down his hips as he pushes two fingers inside her wet core.

Pepper nearly climaxes there and then at the sensation of him filling her and she arches upwards, a strangled noise making its way out of her throat, breaking away from his lips and moaning into the air.

Tony starts to manoeuvre his way down her body, kissing her swollen breasts, slipping his tongue inside her belly button while his fingers thrust painfully-slowly inside her.

Pepper clutches at his hair as he brings her knees up around either side of his head and laps slowly at her core. His tongue is soft and firm and Pepper moans and whimpers as his tongue circles her clit while his fingers continue their endless torture inside her.

'Tony,' she begs as he brings her to the edge then back down again, not letting her tip over into pleasurable oblivion.

'Yes, Pep?' he positively purrs at her, kissing her clit then sucking it gently, making her grip the sand and thrust against his mouth.

He chuckles and removes his fingers, places delicate kisses along the soft skin of her inner thigh, pulling himself back up against her and nuzzling the soft skin at her neck.

'Stop mucking around, and start _moving, _Stark,' Pepper growls in his ear, pushing his boxers down his hips and gripping him, rubbing the head of his cock and guiding it to her entrance.

'What the lady wants,' Tony whimpers against her skin, and thrusts fully into her.

Pepper gasps at the sudden sensation and Tony moans as she wraps her legs around his hips, deepening the angle. He thrusts slowly in and out of her and Pepper feels like her muscles are turning to jelly.

'Mmmm,' she mumbles as his mouth returns to her breast and he bites the soft skin of her nipple gently with his teeth.

She meets each of his thrusts and each one is so deep he has to break away from her breast and clutch at the sand as she tightens her hold around him and makes him whimper. One of his fingers trails down her stomach and presses against her clit and Pepper gasps. He's hot and big and firm inside her and _oh he knows exactly what he's doing _as his lips are wet against her skin. The knot in her stomach builds and builds and his thrusts grow more frenzied until finally he tips her over the edge and Pepper gasps and clutches at his hair and squeezes her eyes tightly shut as waves of pleasure rolls up from between her legs. He comes inside her with a groan and wetness between her legs, collapsing against her.

When Pepper recovers a little, Tony is kissing around her neck and holding onto her hips.

'Wow,' she says.

'Hmmm,' is his response. 'You were great, Pep, _we _were great, we should definitely do this more often.'

'Urrr,' is her response as he slowly pulls out of her and lies beside her on the sand, one arm wrapped around her waist as he places sloppy kisses on her mouth. She can taste herself around his lips and rolls closer towards him as their tongues lazily dance together. She can't remember feeling this good after sex for a long time and with Tony it just feels… right, like they should have been doing it for years instead of dancing around each other.

He nuzzles her neck and sighs contentedly against her skin and Pepper feels like she could just drift away, then reality kicks in and she realises that she has sand in places that she never wanted to have sand and Tony has been known for falling asleep in inappropriate places and if they fell asleep here it would _not be good._

'Tony,' she whispers in his ear as he cuddles her drowsily.

'Hmmm,' he says again.

'We need to move.'

'No we don't.'

'Yes, we do.'

'Hmmm.'

'Tony.' Pepper rolls over and straddles his hips, pressing her lips against his and he lazily caresses her hips and runs his fingers up and down her spine.

'Hey,' he says indignantly as she rolls off him and leaves him lying flat on his back and butt naked against the sand.

Pepper picks up the small ripped pieces of cloth that used to be her panties and sighs, pulling her dress over her head and standing up. She gets an almost instantaneous head rush and nearly crashes back down against the sand but then Tony is stood against her holding her upright while he retrieves his shirt and trousers.

They make their way up the beach holding hands and break into a bathroom by climbing through the window, where they're able to restore their appearance enough to sneak back into the party like they'd never left.

They end up going back to Tony's after the reception and the second they get inside the house jump straight in the shower before collapsing into bed and falling asleep immediately, wrapped in the warm sheets and each other's arms.

When they wake up, there's still sand in the bed.

* * *

_What I really love is how this chapter is twice as long as the rest of them. Please review, hope you enjoyed, thanks for sticking with me till the end ^_^_


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